THE “MILLIONS CAMPAIGN”

Contributing to disciple-making work in those days was a new preaching activity​—the “Millions Campaign.” It featured distribution of the 128-page book Millions Now Living Will Never Die, placed with the people on a contribution of 25c a copy. The book was used in conjunction with a public-speaking program that began on September 25, 1920, and that centered around a lecture (originally entitled “The World Has Ended​—Millions Now Living May Never Die”) given by J. F. Rutherford in Los Angeles on February 24, 1918, and published in the new book in 1920.

Millions Now Living Will Never Die eventually was translated and published in various languages. Unlike the “pastoral work,” which had consisted of lending books to the people, copies of the “Millions” book were placed with them on a contribution, and interested persons could later obtain volumes of Studies in the Scriptures. The “Millions Campaign” lasted for some time, and a great witness was given by this means. Newspaper notices and billboards with the words “Millions Now Living Will Never Die” were used to bring it to public attention. So extensive was the campaign that the slogan has been remembered through the years.

Recalling the effect of the “Millions Campaign,” Rufus Chappell writes: “We had offered the publication Millions Now Living Will Never Die in and around Zion [Illinois] and the results were of interest. I remember a large, flashing electric sign over the Waukegan Dry Cleaners building on North Sheridan Road about five miles from Zion, which said, ‘We Dye for the Millions Now Living Who Will Never Die.’ This was a very popular subject at that time, and many people had questioned the phrase and learned the truth from this publication.”